POULTRY FOR EVERYBODY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10225, 28 April 1911, Page 6

POULTRY FOR EVERYBODY.

(By "Cock-o'-the-North.')

A person may have selected the best pullets bred from the best laying strain it is possible to buy in any breed one may have adopted. I They may be housed perfectly, and I the site may be the best in the world; the birds may be looking well, but if the ration is wrong the whole thing is useless, and the work and expense thrown away. I am not going to say that the feeding of poultry is the main point in poultry culture, for there is no main point but one, and that is the man. Poultry culture can be compared exactly to a good expensive watch, just as long as all the works are going the watch is a perfect specimen of its kind, but if ,one work goes wrong the watch becomes useless as a reliable chronicle of the time. The work may be a very small one which has gone wrong, and it may be capable of being easily and quickly repaired; but until it is, it is of no value ro the owner and worse; for if through carelessness he fails to note that "there is something wrong it may cause him serious loss by causing him to lose an important business appointment. It is not at all necessary for one of the main works lo go wrong to do this, but any part of them, therefore, I contend there is no most important work in a wa£?h. any more than there is any most important work in poultry culture. If a man is feeding correctly, arid

has failed to cull out his waster J, or

to keep the birds nnder sanitary, conditions or has allowed them to, be exposed to strong cold winds or rain, or both, the whole (or nearly so) of •the feeding is wasted; or if th<> bird? arc culled and kept right b-;t i**d wmi.s th< same thing hap'.»»>F; thn revuity are poor, the good, soh <«s I it is, is wasted, and the tirae t!»o?.-n ;..way Nevertheless it is .1 .ory :important branch of knowledge in poulfcr.' farming and failure to nirr.r it out properly, whether through ignorance or neglect is paid for heavily by loss of profits, whether it be with six binds or six thousand. The feeding of poultry for the man keeping a few fowls for the table or thousands for commercial purposes should be conducted on exactly the same lines, as the objects are identical, viz., to produce fine, full, flavoured, full bodied eggs at as low a cost in food, health, and from a labour saving point of view as possible. If a person running say a dozen hens finds at the end of the year that the food has cost say 7d per •dozen of eggs, interest on land, house and run Id, and time to clean, water, feed,- disinfect and the innumerable other little things which have to be done hare cost say 8d per dozen, then he has paid an average price for his eggs of Is 4d per dozen for the year, and some I know pay fully twice that sum per dozen for every egg they consume. In the latter case it would be far more economical to buy the eggs, but in the former the person''through paying full market price has the comfort and pleasure of real new laid eggs the year round. ~-.,--. ; . - art gently means that one* shbuSi, know

approximately on picking Sp r » ihattcV ful of any fowl feed what effect it will have if fed to the birds alone or in, combination with other foods; that is to say whether the elements required to form eggs are contained in the food or whether it is too rich in any particular element, in which case it will probably be too poor in another; and the ■ game applies to fattening when the food should be balanced so as to produce soft white meat (not fat). He should know just the amounts required of each different food constituent to properly b&lance "a ration, and; also how to increase or decrease these by lessening or increasing various grains, meals, vegetables, or animal foods so as to blend with other and different ones for .the :purpos© : of giving his fowls a variety of food, which the birds appreciate jast as. much as, we do. . ' jlll foods are composed ofprotein (sometimes called cai'bo-hydrates, - residue of food after it has been burned or consumed), fibre, or husk, and water. The three first elements are the only ones which need to,trouble the poultry keepers, as nearly all foods contain a sufficient quantity of mineral ash for the needs of the birds and * exhaustive experiments proved that husk or fibre is of no good value whatever, while the water contained in foods is of no more value to the bird fed than the ordinary water she drinks. (To be continued*).

BANBOM POINTS. , If there is anything-'that you don't quite understand; ask somebody tnat The nuin, jas.hap\ed t6

do this will be an ignoramus all the days of his life. That is the way I got my education, for I never was at school in my life.

Make your head save your hands | as much as you possibly can. Hands and brains will beat hands and money every time. The real poultry man does not recognise the word failure in his work. Mistakes may be made, or unforseen disaster occur, but the man of grit does not bow down to these; he masters them, not them master him. Don't accept every invention offered you, but at tlie same time don't condemn it until you have overwhelming proof it is wrong. The man who publicly condemns another man's invention because he is not smart enough to invent anything himself, looks very silly indeed if it turns out a success.